AI lab TL;DR | Žiga Turk - Brussels is About to Protect Citizens from Intelligence

🔍 In this TL;DR episode, Professor Žiga Turk (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia) discusses his recent contribution for the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies on how “Brussels is About to Protect Citizens from Intelligence” with the AI lab

📌 TL;DR Highlights

⏲️[00:00] Intro

⏲️[01:55] Q1 - Why do you think AI regulation prioritises limiting risks over promoting innovation and freedom of expression? How can governments balance security and privacy with technological innovation?

⏲️[05:13] Q2 - You view AI as a 'general technology' that shouldn't be specifically regulated, advocating for technology-neutral laws. What does this mean in practice?

⏲️[09:46] Wrap-up & Outro

🗣️ The mistake is to try to regulate technology, it is behaviours that have to be regulated. (...) If politicians (...) go about regulating every new technology that appears, they will always be behind the curve.

🗣️ The even bigger danger is [the] kind of chilling effect [AI regulation] would have for European industries, people and businesses who will not have access to the latest and greatest AI tools (...).

🗣️ Some AI tools are coming to European customers with a delay or not at all. This puts the whole European economy, its citizens [and] its scientists at a disadvantage with their competition.

🗣️ Investors would be hesitant. Do I want to invest in [AI] in Europe, which is so tightly regulated?

🗣️ I don't think it matters whether you make a deepfake with Photoshop or let AI do it. If deepfakes need to be labelled, they should be labelled regardless of the technology.

🗣️ Admire (...) the thinkers and politicians of the Enlightenment era (...) [for] not going “[the printed press] will create all kinds of unacceptable risks, we have to regulate ex-ante (...)”. Instead, they created (...) legislation on freedom of expression.

🗣️ In the early days (...), the US created regulation that actually freed Internet companies from some potential dangers of hosting user content on their platforms, which created this whole Internet industry and creativity around platforms.

📌 About Our Guest

🎙️ Žiga Turk | Professor, University of Ljubljana (Slovenia)

X https://twitter.com/@zigaTurkEU

🌐 Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies - Brussels is About to Protect Citizens from Intelligence

https://www.martenscentre.eu/blog/brussels-is-about-to-protect-citizens-from-intelligence/
🌐 Regulating artificial intelligence: A technology-independent approach. European View, 23(1), 87-93
https://doi.org/10.1177/17816858241242890

🌐 Prof. Žiga Turk

https://www.zturk.com/p/english.html

Žiga Turk is a Professor at the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) and a member of the Academic Council of the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies. He holds degrees in engineering and computer science. Prof. Turk was Minister for Growth, as well as Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports in the Government of Slovenia and Secretary General of the Felipe Gonzalez Reflection Group on the Future of Europe. As an academic, author and public speaker, he studies communication, internet science and scenarios of future global developments, particularly the role of technology and innovation.